[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 148 (Thursday, September 21, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H9426-H9431]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
AMERICAN CITIZENS RECENTLY SENTENCED TO IMPRISONMENT IN COMMUNIST
VIETNAM
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the
gentleman from California [Mr. Dornan] is recognized for 30 minutes.
Mr. DORNAN. Mr. Speaker, we have a tragic situation going on, as
this, the most powerful, deliberative body in the free or democratic
world, meets. We have American citizens sentenced to 7 and 9 years of
imprisonment in Saigon, and some day it will be renamed Saigon again,
not named after a Communist killer named Ho Chi Minh. Just as Lenin's
name was removed from beautiful St. Petersburg in northern Russia, and
as Stalin's name was removed from a strategic battle area in World War
II, Stalingrad, and the city has back its less bloody name of
Volgograd, some day it will be Saigon again. So as a free man, I will
continue to call it Saigon.
In Saigon, and I want to speak slowly for our official recorder of
debate here, so we get these names right, and unfortunately, the
Americans sentenced to prison in Saigon are naturalized Americans; as
was Alexander Hamilton naturalized, as is Henry Kissinger, as are a lot
of great Americans who have invented things and fought and died for
this country and our liberty.
Unlike Harry Wu, who I had a chance to meet as he was testifying
before the Committee on International Relations of the gentleman from
New York, Ben Gilman, they did not affect Christian first names,
probably because they are not Christians, they are Buddhists. But if
they had taken an anglicized name, it would be easier to imprint in the
consciousness of the American people and freedom-loving people in
Europe and around the world the name of a victim of Communist tyranny,
as we were able to do with Mr. Wu, because he took my father's first
name, Harry. ``Harry Wu'' became a battle cry for liberal Democrats
like the gentlewoman from California, Nancy Pelosi. It got all mixed up
with the trip of the First Lady over to the Beijing Conference, the
very controversial U.N. conference.
{time} 1715
So much international pressure that the Chinese communists in Beijing
knew there would be no trip of Hillary Clinton if they did not release
Harry Wu.
But meanwhile, in the other Chamber, and I am going to go slow here
so that I do not skirt a line and violate comity with the other Chamber
on the north end of this building. But how is it that the Senate could
vote yesterday blocking Senator Bob Smith of New Hampshire's reasonable
amendment, endorsed by the chairman of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Helms, the
chairman of Defense, Mr. Strom Thurmond, and the leader of the Senate
and leading presidential candidate, Bob Dole? How is it that a bunch of
Republicans over there could dismiss Senator Smith of New Hampshire's
reasonable amendment that no trade negotiations could be furthered with
United States taxpayers' money, let alone setting up an embassy in the
communist capital of Hanoi, unless these human rights violations are
reversed and these two Americans are set free, as Harry Wu was set free
in China, and that we get a fullest accounting, that is a very key
word. Not ``full'' or ``fully.'' But ``fullest'' means reasonable
accounting with the communist giving up the politburo and the Communist
Central Committee records on our missing in action.
Unless those two things, and a handful of other reasonable small
things, are conformed with by this communist government in Hanoi, as we
put tremendous pressure on Castro and the communist government in
Havana Cuba today, unless these reasonable requests are taken care of,
then no money from the taxpayers of the United States Treasury should
be provided to the communist government in Hanoi.
There is a cover story on a national magazine in the last couple of
weeks about communism being far from dead. Not as long as it is
persecuting 1,260,000,000 people in China. That is the United States
plus a billion people. Not as long as Russia is rebuilding its KGB
apparatus under a new name, under one of their old leaders, Yevgeniy
Primakov. I have met with him in KGB headquarters with Henry Hyde some
years back. He is now helping to build up the intelligence capability
of terrorist states like Iran, so designated by the State Department,
even under liberal leadership under Clinton's appointed secretaries and
under Secretaries.
Not only do we have that emerging problem in the much-reduced empire
that is now down to Russia and a few adjoining countries they consider
within their hegemony, countries that rely on them for gas and oil and
other critical things to keep cities running. There are terror regimes
still, depending on how you count the numbers of people that are
terrorized, in Cuba, North Korea, we do not get much argument on North
Korea, and communist Vietnam.
Very few, if any, Democrats in the other body, and most of the
Republicans who voted against Mr. Smith, all of them as a matter of
fact, they dropped the word ``communist'' from any discussion of
Vietnam and Hanoi, using it occasionally because ``socialist'' is in
their title, as it was with all the communist countries at the height
of the cold war when they were killing and jailing people by the tens
of thousands, and killed hundreds of thousands, if not millions, in the
Vietnam Southeast Asia area and in the Korean War. They always
substituted the word ``socialist'' for ``communist.'' Even they knew
the dreaded impact of the word ``communist.''
But with Cuba, North Vietnam, now all of tortured Vietnam, North
Korea, and communist China still engaging in massive human rights
violations, why are two naturalized United States citizens written off,
rotting in prison for 2 years this November in Saigon?
Here are their names: Nguyen, N-G-U-Y-E-N which is the Vietnamese
cultural equivalent to Jones and Smith combined. It is the most common
name in Vietnam society. Nguyen Tan Tri. Not a hard name to remember.
Nguyen Tan Tri.
He was given a 7-year sentence. Tran Quang Liem. My ninth grandchild
is named Liam, Irish-Gaelic. Liem should not be so hard to remember.
Mr. Tran and Mr. Nguyen, 7 and 4 years respectively sentenced, and the
U.S. State Department said it was unwelcome; that it was an unwelcomed
deed.
Further on in the press release from an Associated Press story on
August 16, the day after they were sentenced during our break; no one
here to speak up for them on the House floor, myself included, the
State Department statement goes on further to say that it was
``disappointing.'' ``Disappointing and unwelcomed.''
Disappointing, because the sentence happened 6 days after the U.S.
Secretary of State, in the job that was first held by Thomas Jefferson,
whose beautiful marble medallion is up here, Warren Christopher posed
in front of a bust of communist killer, Ho Chi-Minh,
[[Page H 9427]]
and 6 days later American citizens are sentenced to 6 and 4 years.
Teddy Roosevelt, where are you when we need you to speak up for these
two lost American citizens, Nguyen and Tran?
And by the way, they are both constituents of the Orange County
delegation from southern California. Then, another constituent who used
to be one of mine when he first fled communism and arrived in
Westminster, that city since the reapportionment is now represented by
my pal, Dana Rohrabacher, this gentleman is thrown in prison--a
businessman who went over there to promote democracy peacefully. But
the communists have found out that if they capture businessmen, just
like they are some Mafia thug operation, they can demand from their
family in the United States ransom money, like it is King Richard the
Lionhearted.
We will spit them out of our communist country if you give us ransom
money; $15 thousand is the going price. This businessman from
Westminster, a member of the Lien Viet party, his name is Van Thanh
Nguyen.
Here is a lady from Corona, just up the road from me, the first city
out of my district into L.A. County. She is another businesswoman, one
of seven thrown in prison, ransom being demanded on them. Her name is
Mrs. Binh Thy Nguyen, and then her married name, Tran. You can call her
for short, Mrs. Binh Tran. She is rotting in prison.
She was pregnant when they arrested her, and because she was 2 months
pregnant and in great emotional distress and complications set in, they
forced her to have an abortion. This is not China I am talking about,
killing babies for gender selection and infanticide, on top of an
abortion Holocaust even worse than the United States toll of 1,500,000
American babies killed in their mother's womb. This is forced abortion
in Saigon by a communist government. It is unbelievable.
How about a monk, a Buddhist monk? Considering how it turned
America's newspapers upside down when Buddhist monks immolated
themselves in 1963 and 1964. Here is a monk who, without government
permission, went to help the flood victims of the constant flooding,
seasonally, of the Mekong River, and because he did it as a religious
person, a Buddhist monk and a leader, he gets 4 years in prison. I will
look up the exact time he is going to have to rot in prison. He goes to
prison. They would not even give him the dignity of his religious name.
His religious name is Thich Quang Do. They tried him under his former
name, before he became a priest, and he is a deputy leader of the
Unified Buddhist Church in Vietnam. But that is a church that believes
in a Supreme Being, so it is banned in Vietnam.
They said, ``You are undermining national solidarity,'' these are the
communists speaking, ``and taking advantage of the right of freedom and
democracy to damage the interests of the government and social
institutions.''
So, of course, great bipartisan groups like Human Rights Watch/Asia,
have attacked this. Again, weak words from our State Department. So the
Ho Chi Minh City, that is Saigon, People's Court jailed this monk for 5
years.
This is going on while the U.S. Senate debates, and my colleague, Bob
Smith, pours his heart out. And then another one of my friends gets up
and attacks me and another couple of Members of this House.
parliamentary inquiry
Mr. DORNAN. Mr. Speaker, I may have to ask for some parliamentary
guidance on this. I was described as insignificant, Mr. Speaker, by a
U.S. Senator. That is OK. I am a peacetime combat-trained warrior. But
our colleague and friend, one of the greatest heroes, including all the
heroes who came home from World War II, who serves in this Chamber, was
attacked also as insignificant, Sam Johnson of Dallas, TX.
Sam spent 7 years in Communist captivity; 3\1/2\ years in solitary
confinement. Was one of the most tortured men, and one of those so
loyal that like other people, would not play basketball or volleyball
or decorate fake Christmas trees, because he knew they would be filmed
and used in propaganda films. He and 10 other men stood up to the
Communist manipulation of them.
He was put in a little camp that they, with great American bravado
and spirit, called Alcatraz, and for 11 years, Senator Jeremiah Denton,
who served 6 great years in the other body, and Coker and McKnight and
another hero who just died recently in a plane crash that his grown son
mercifully survived, God's calls are strange indeed, sometimes. Eleven
of the best, including a man who got the Medal of Honor that Alcatraz
camp, who Ross Perot chose to be his Vice President in 1992, James Bond
Stockdale.
They are all on a letter that I will put in the Record saying that we
should not normalize relations with Vietnam.
My squadron commander, Robby Risner, also tortured months on end, as
was Sam Johnson and James Bond Stockdale, decorated with the Air Force
Cross. They are in agreement with me. Are they also insignificant, as
this Senator has called me?
I want to ask a question to the Chair, because I want this to be
perfect, what I put in the Record according to our rules of the House.
Since I am mentioning a Senator, responding to him, trying to be
respectful, I am not allowed to mention his name; is that correct, Mr.
Speaker? Would you ask the Parliamentarian.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Hobson). For the benefit of the Member,
the Chair will read the pertinent language of clause 1 of rule XIV.
``Debate may include references to actions taken by the Senate, or by
committees thereof, which are a matter of public record, and factual
descriptions relating to Senate action or inaction concerning a measure
then under debate in the House, but may not include characterizations
of Senate action or inaction, or other references to individual Members
of the Senate.''
Members will recall that on October 8, 1991, the Chair held as
unparliamentary remarks in debate advocating certain Senate action with
respect to the pending nomination of Judge Clarence Thomas for
appointment to the Supreme Court.
Members should be guided by that recent precedent. The Chair expects
the cooperation of all Members in maintaining a level of decorum that
dignifies the proceedings of this body and maintains comity with the
other body.
Mr. DORNAN. Mr. Speaker, you will certainly get that. Let me ask one
clarification problem. Yesterday's Congressional Record is public
record now. Now, how can I discuss that debate and the words in that
debate? Further clarification, if I do not mention a Senator's name,
can I read his--well, I have already eliminated the seven or eight
women over there--can I read his remarks from the public Record, the
Congressional Record of yesterday? I know I can give the results of the
vote.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. It is the Chair's understanding that the
reference is improper unless there is a measure under consideration in
the House.
Mr. DORNAN. There is.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Only when under debate, then on the floor of
the House, that the gentleman should refrain from referring to the
proceedings in the Senate.
Mr. DORNAN. Right There is nothing on the House floor now, except my
Special Order. So that is not the business relating to this business of
Vietnam.
However, we have in conference a unanimous agreement by voice vote,
with the only debate carried by the aforementioned Sam Johnson of
Dallas, TX, a House item in our International Relations conference that
no money shall be expended from the U.S. Public Treasury to send an
ambassador to Vietnam, or to increase the size of our delegation there
beyond what is was on July 12.
Now, since that has already passed the House and it is in conference,
and the conference is pending, and I am meeting with the conferees in 5
minutes, does that make me able to make the case in countervention to
the Senate case made yesterday that lost 58 to 39?
{time} 1730
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Hobson). The short answer is no, you may
not speak in characterization of that.
Mr. DORNAN. Right. OK, let me broaden this.
[[Page H 9428]]
Mr. Speaker, I am not a courtroom attorney, and I do not want to be
unfairly clever since I have already mentioned part of this, and do a
Jonathan Swift ``Gulliver's Travels'' trick here that I see happen all
the time on the other side of the aisle now, and talk about
characterizations. But let me broaden it out then to those people out
there in America who try to compare Vietnam to Germany where we won the
war, hung the war criminals, walked the battlefields, solved most
missing in action, captured most of the archives, and sill had young
Americans disappear into Stalin's gulag. Because our Soviet ally became
our enemy before the ink was dry on the German unconditional signed
surrender.
When this debate is couched in these terms on Communist Vietnam, that
people hope the debate will go away, that it is over, the inflammatory
language coming only from the House of Representatives, so few in
number, although there is more than a few of us, that we are
insignificant, that Mr. Clinton was right to normalize relations with
Vietnam. Actually, that was his fifth deed in a rapid 18 months to try
and insert this Communist dictatorship into the civilized nations of
the world. And when people say that the Nation breathed a sigh of
relief that Vietnam was finally over, it is not over for the families
of missing in action Americans.
It is not over for the families of all of these people I have just
discussed who are now in filthy, Communist dungeons in Saigon. It is
not over for those who were arrested and throw in prison in Hanoi for
wanting open elections. This is what is causing Castro to be embargoed
into his fourth decade, because he will not have an election. He is
dictator for life.
What do we have in North Korea? For the first time in history, the
worst of royal bloodline governments combined with Communist tyranny. A
vicious dictator, Kim Il Sung, turns the reigns of power over to his
pornography-loving and collecting son, Kim Jong Il, and it is ill for
the country.
They are busy with Communist China and Iran, developing missiles and
nuclear warheads to combine them with those missiles, and we have to
spend millions and millions of United States taxpayers dollars to watch
them like a hawk, with satellite imagery and slant imagery from outside
their borders to make sure that they do not ignite that whole pathetic
torn little peninsula into yet another Korean war.
Remember, when Clinton went to the dedication of one of the most
stirring, tear-ripping memorials in this city, the Korean War Memorial,
different from the Vietnam Memorial which was made sacred the second
the first hero's name was chiseled into the wall, but to this date,
still does not have an American flag on it. The American flag was
pushed into the woods along with the statute of three heroic Americans
coming out of the woods looking at the State Department, one African-
American, one Hispanic heritage American, and one just generally Anglo-
looking American. That statue and a plaque at the base of the flag that
says they served under difficult circumstances. Yes, alluding to a war
criminal named Robert Strange, and Strange in his mother's maiden name.
People ask me if I make that up. Robert Strange McNamara, a war
criminal, is on his way to Hanoi and it is being set up for him by the
Council on Foreign Relations.
Friends of mine like our speaker and Alexander Haig and Bill Buckley,
my pal, and other distinguished Americans who belong to the Council on
Foreign Relations, ask me why I have never joined and why my friend,
Ronald Reagan, who slam-dunked George Bush in 1980 on February 23,
1980, and I was the only one there for Reagan when he said, ``I do not
belong and I never will.''
They wonder why some of us find not a conspiracy, but an elitist
group, people who do not care about the average family as kids die in
these wars. They are sending a team over to Hanoi next week to grease
the path for war criminal Robert Strange McNamara who walked off the
battlefield on the bloodiest month of the war, January 30 through
February 29. He resigned on leap year day, February 29, 1968, so he
would only have to think about it every 4 years, and then he went on
vacation for a month at Aspen and skied while our hospitals were filled
to capacity, the worst month of the whole 10-year decade, with
amputees, double amputees and yes, triple amputees, more blind American
soldiers in hospitals, four or five nurses dead, women captured and
dying on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, forced marches up to the North, and
McNamara is skiing in Aspen for the whole month of March in 1968.
But that wasn't enough. Then he went to the Caribbean for another
week to meet with officials that he was going to serve with at the
World Bank, and then he went off to the World Bank, thanks to one of
our corrupt Presidents, corrupt in all of the history books if you read
them, and not even carefully, either, it is right out there blatant.
Ask Bill Moyers about corruption, including womanizing.
Then we see McNamara at the Caribbean about to start drawing his
World Bank salary that he drew for 13 years at $250,000 a year. I must
slow down and say this carefully three times: Tax free, tax free, tax
free, and the Library of Congress told me in now dollars that is
between $900,000 and $1 million a year. For 13 years McNamara, the
architect of Vietnam, who created that immoral, sick vocabulary of
gradualism, escalated response, strategic hamlets, body bags, fire
fights, body counts, free fire zones, and the worst of all to airmen,
Mig sanctuaries and SAM missile sites protected as they are built and
only allowed to be targets intermittently after they have killed your
wing man. Unbelievable.
And people are saying, in this city, that it is good, that Vietnam is
over and the American people overwhelmingly want it over.
Well, I guess I cannot put the Congressional Record in the Record
here. It would be redundant, but I would like it to be a part of my
debate, so I would ask people, the million-plus audience of C-SPAN who
quite intelligently and historically follows the proceedings of this
Chamber, Mr. Speaker, I would tell them that I can read this, something
congratulatory, Bob Dole saying he hopes the House language prevails on
the Missing In Act we are trying to enact into law. Here is a letter
from 85 former POW's. Lt. Gen. John Peter Flynn, Robinson Risner,
Brigadier General, my former squadron commander, Sam Johnson, our proud
Member of Congress, Eugene ``Red'' McDaniel, the most tortured man in
all of those captive men. Anybody tortured beyond him died under
torture. And ``Red'' was one of the ones that helped to get this
letter. I am looking at those who have written great books and are
still inspirational speakers. Charlie Plum. It is a roll call of the
bravest and the best. Michael Benge, who was over there 11 years, Col.
Ted Guy, who testified before my Military Personnel subcommittee on
June 28, Ted Guy, 4 years in solitary confinement. He was Senator John
McCain's commander at the Plantation POW camp.
Look at this list. Here is Jack Bomar, one of the four colonels. They
had four bird colonels in their hands. Leo Thorsness is my pal, Medal
of Honor winner, former Senator in the State of Washington, now
president of the Medal of Honor group.
As former POW's in Vietnam, here is what they say led by Red
McDaniel, now president of the Defense Policy Association, ``I strongly
support the House version of the Missing Persons Act.'' And yet on
``Meet The Press,'' a member of a legislative body around here told me
that my figures were wrong when I said most POW's supported the
gentleman from New York, Mr. Gilman, and Bob Dole's language on this.
Here is a letter from the National Alliance of Families. I have a
letter from Ann Griffith and the League of Families. Here is a letter
from the Korean Cold War Family Association of The Missing. These three
I am pretty sure, yes, I know I can put them in the record. Vietnam
Veterans of America. The Marine Corps League, just came in yesterday. A
letter to Floyd Spence, chairman of the Committee on National Security
from Ted Guy. Veterans of the Vietnam war from their program director.
Mr. Speaker, I will include all of these following my remarks.
Disabled American Veterans. A letter to my counterpart on the Senate
side, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Military
Personnel to Dan Coats, our good friend and
[[Page H 9429]]
colleague who served with us here. From John Sommer, executive director
of the American Legion. I cannot put that in, because it is critical of
a member of the other body. The sister of Maj. Robert F. Coady begging
that it go in. Pat Plumadore, who has lost a family member. The sister
of a marine missing. When I went on ``Meet The Press'' and said
that overwhelmingly, veterans groups want this Missing Persons Act, so
we will not relive the nightmare of Korea and Vietnam and oppose
normalization with Vietnam. When I said most POW's, when I said most
Vietnam veterans of that conflict and Vietnam veterans of Korea, when I
gave the percentages on most Vietnamese-Americans, and it is about 85
to 95 percent, when I talked about every person of the Democratic
Freedom groups in Vietnam and in this country, and there is 1 million
Vietnamese-Americans, about 700,000, 800,000 already American citizens,
another 200,000 or 300,000, they have great family respect, a better
than average birth rate among the Vietnamese community. This year or
next, the Vietnamese-American community will tie the valiant anti-
Communist Cuban-American community, and the valiant anti-Communist
Hungarian-American community. When I gave all of those figures, someone
from another legislative body says, ``I do not buy any of Congressman
Dornan's figures or percentages or statistics,'' but offered none on
the other side. These are the facts. Get the Record from today. I would
hope, Mr. Speaker, that any American would get the Record from today
and read how those of us, who are not insignificant, who are fighting
for the honor of the 58,300 men and 8 women's names who are on that
wall who should be honored with a plaque at the apex of the wall that
simply says, ``These good Americans died fighting Communism.'' Because
Vietnam and Korea melted down the cold war, as its two biggest blood-
letting subsets in what John F. Kennedy called that long twilight
struggle against communism that is not over yet. And for the
Vietnamese-American community, as I told them up in New York on August
19, you must study the success of the anti-Communist Cuban-American
community and get into the political process, get your Lincoln Diaz-
Balart's and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen's and Bob Martinez's on the other side
of the aisle, get people of your heritage elected to this body so that
they can speak up to those who would dismiss all of this history in
this long struggle, bloody struggle against communism that still goes
on against China, Vietnam, North Korea, at least we kept half of that
peninsula free, and yes, Cuba, 90 miles from Key West.
Mr. Speaker, I will keep returning, as I told several U.S. Senators
in conference, I will return to this issue until the day I die. The
motto is, ``faithful until death,'' for me. I am not going to forget
the missing or what communism did to Southeast Asia, what it did to
Cambodia, the killing fields, Laos, Vietnam with over 100,000 executed,
68,000 people who befriended us, thought we were a superpower and a
reliable ally, and they were executed under death orders, under the
same Communist killers that shake hands with Members of Congress or are
toasted to by Members of Congress and by General Giap who is called a
war hero. General Giap is a war criminal who ordered children to be
killed. I shall be back on this issue.
Mr. Speaker, I include for the Record the material previously
referred to.
American Defense Institute,
Alexandria, VA,
September 18, 1995.
Hon. Robert K. Dornan,
U.S. House of Representatives,
Washington, DC.
Dear Congressman Dornan: As a former POW in Vietnam and now
president of a defense policy organization, I strongly
support the 1995 House version of the Missing Persons Act
(H.R. 945). I am dismayed to learn of the efforts of some to
``water down'' this important legislation and decrease its
impact.
I can think of nothing more critical to the morale of our
fighting men than to know that, if they should go missing
while fighting America's battles, their country will do
everything humanly possible to determine their fate.
Especially in view of the tragic manner in which information
about our MIAs and POWs in Southeast Asia has been handled by
our government, active duty personnel and their families need
reassurance of their nation's commitment to them--and in the
strongest language possible!
It is hard for me to imagine any high-ranking military
officer implying that limited time and resources during
conflict preclude accounting for missing soldiers. How can
such an officer possibly lead men into battle? Accounting for
missing personnel is a matter of military honor--and a matter
of national honor.
Sincerely,
Eugene ``Red'' McDaniel,
CAPT, USN (Ret),
President.
Attachment:
John Peter Flynn, Lt. Gen, USAF (ret).
Robinson Risner, Brig. Gen, USAF (ret).
Sam Johnson, Member of Congress.
Eugene ``Red'' McDaniel, CAPT, USN (ret).
John A. Alpers, Lt. Col, USAF (ret).
William J. Baugh, Col, USAF (ret).
Adkins, C. Speed, MAJ, USA (ret).
F.C. Baldock, CDR, USN (ret).
Carroll Beeler, CAPT, USN (ret).
Terry L. Boyer, Lt. Col, USAF (ret).
Cole Black, CAPT, USN (ret).
Paul G. Brown, LtCol, USMC (ret).
David J. Carey, CAPT, USN (ret).
John D. Burns, CAPT, USN (ret).
James V. DiBernado, LtCol, USMC (ret).
F.A.W. Franke, CAPT, USN (ret).
Wayne Goodermote, CAPT, USN (ret).
Jay R. Jensen, Lt. Col, USAF (ret).
James M. Hickerson, CAPT, USN (ret).
James F. Young, Col, USAF (ret).
J. Charles Plumb, CAPT, USN (ret).
Larry Friese, CDR, USN (ret).
Julius Jayroe, Col, USAF (ret).
Bruce Seeber, Col, USAF (ret).
Konrad Trautman, Col, USAF (ret).
Lawrence Barbay, Lt. Col, USAF (ret).
Ron Bliss, Capt, USAF (ret).
Arthur Burer, Col, USAF (ret).
James O. Hivner, Col, USAF (ret).
Gordon A. Larson, Col, USAF (ret).
Robert Lewis, MSgt, USA (ret).
James L. Lamar, Col, USAF (ret).
Armand J. Myers, Col, USAF (ret).
Terry Uyeyama, Col, USAF (ret).
Richard D. Vogel, Col, USAF (ret).
Ted Guy, Col, USAF (ret).
Paul E. Galanti, CDR, USN (ret).
Laird Guttersen, Col, USAF (ret).
Lawrence J. Stark, Civ.
Michael D. Benge, Civ.
Marion A. Marshall, Lt. Col, USAF (ret).
Richard D. Mullen, CAPT, USN (ret).
Philip E. Smith, Lt. Col, USAF (ret).
William Stark, CAPT, USN (ret).
David F. Allwine, MSgt, USA (ret).
Bob Barrett, Col, USAF (ret).
Jack W. Bomar, Col, USAF (ret).
Larry J. Chesley, Lt. Col, USAF (ret).
C.D. Rice, CDR, USN (ret).
Robert L. Stirm, Col, USAF (ret).
Bernard Talley, Col, USAF (ret).
Paul Montague, Civ.
Leo Thorsness, Col, USAF (ret).
Robert Lerseth, CAPT, USN (ret).
Ray A. Vodhen, CAPT, USN (ret).
Richard G. Tangeman, CAPT, USN (ret).
John Pitchford, Col, USAF (ret).
Steven Long, Col, USAF (ret).
Brian Woods, CAPT, USN (ret).
Dale Osborne, CAPT, USN (ret).
Ralph Galati, Maj, USAF (ret).
Ronald M. Lebert, Lt. Col, USAF (ret).
Harry T. Jenkins, CAPT, USN (ret).
John C. Ensch, CAPT, USN (ret).
Render Crayton, CAPT, USN (ret).
Henry James Bedinger, CDR, USN (ret).
Brian D. Woods, CAPT, USN (ret).
Read B. Mecleary, CAPT, USN (ret).
Ted Stier, CDR, USN (ret).
James L. Hutton, CAPT, USN (ret).
John H. Wendell, Lt. Col, USAF (ret).
John W. Clark, Col, USAF (ret).
Carl B. Crumpler, Col, USAF (ret).
Verlyne W. Daniels, CAPT, USN (ret).
Roger D. Ingvalson, Col, USAF (ret).
September 20, 1995.
Hon. Floyd Spence,
U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, DC.
Dear Congressman Spence: Strong legislation that will
ensure the accountability of past and future missing in
action (MIA) and prisoners of war (POW) is an absolute
necessity. The revelation in the September 18, 1995, U.S.
News and World Report concerning former President Bush and
the Vietnam POW/MIA issue confirms this necessity.
Many former POWs, family members, activists and I have long
suspected and have knowledge of Hanoi continually lying about
the accountability of POWs and MIAs. I, and I suspect many
others, have felt that U.S. government officials aided and
abetted in these lies in an effort to save face. Thus the
necessity of a strong and enforceable ``Missing Persons
Act.''
As you may or may not know, I was the Senior Ranking
Officer (SRO) of all prisoners captured in South Vietnam and
Laos and separately interned in North Vietnam. During and
after ``Operation Homecoming'' it was disclosed that some of
us had been declared `Killed in Action. Body not Recovered'
(KBNR). In at least one case, one of my enlisted men's
``remains'' had been returned to the United States and
buried! Needless to say, he was still very much alive.
The term missing in action (MIA) should be banished and all
persons who disappear during a conflict should be carried as
alive unless there is overwhelming evidence that survival was
impossible. This alive status should continue until board
action can determine status after the cessation of
hostilities. No one expects all to be accounted for, but the
lessons of Vietnam strongly suggest that premature actions
were taken. The cost of pay and allowances to the family is
insignificant when compared to other daily expenditures of
the U.S. government.
I assure you that Senator John McCain does not speak for
the families of the non returned nor for the majority of the
returned
[[Page H 9430]]
POWs. As I recall, Senator McCain was the leading advocate of
normalization with Vietnam, a move strongly opposed by many
former POWs and many veterans' groups. To let McCain solely
influence decisions concerning the ``Missing Persons Act'' is
a discredit to the suffering families and concerned POWs.
Sincerely,
Theodore W. Guy,
Col. (Ret) USAF,
Former POW 68-73.
____
Syracuse, NY,
September 11, 1995.
Hon. Dan Coats,
U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
Dear Senator Coats: As the sister of a Marine missing from
the Vietnam war, I implore you to support the House version
of The Missing Service Personnel Act of 1995. Any change from
the language of the House version of this Bill would be yet
another obstacle on the path to truth and/or closure for the
families of our nations missing heroes and abandonment of our
loved ones by this government once again.
Sir, no one, not the President, DOD, the Service Casualty
Offices, nor the people supposedly responsible for accounting
for our missing, ever seem to listen to the voices that have
been screaming for help in unraveling the mystery of this
travesty for so many long, long years. What has happened to
my brother and subsequently, to his family, is a horror story
that at times seems unbelievable even to me. I have lost
faith in so many things that I held sacred and dear, my
President, my party, my confidence in the honor and honesty
of my elected officials. It appears that one of the first
Orders of THE NEW WORLD is to wipe the slates clean without
any real accounting, and to never, never use the words POW/
MIA again.
Please, I beg you, don't let yourself be influenced by
those who have their own agenda and who believe that money
and the love of money are more important than my brother. My
brother Kenny was left behind in 1967, please don't allow
them to leave him behind again. We, the families of the
missing, need this legislation as it is written by the House.
If you could walk in our shoes for even one day, maybe you
would understand why it is so important. My last attempt at
getting answers from our government resulted in their telling
me it would cost me $3,147.00 to process my FOIA request. Our
government lost my brother, yet they want me to pay to find
out how and why!
Please do not let the language of this bill be changed in
any way?
Sincerely,
Pat Plumadore.
____
The New York Times,
July 12, 1995.
It may be that many Republican primary voters, a more
conservative subset of the more conservative party, are more
opposed to Mr. Clinton's action than are Americans as a
whole. Mr. Dole's stance may play well with them.
But the steps along this road that Mr. Bush and Mr. Clinton
took earlier, including the lifting last year of a 19-year
embargo on trade with Vietnam, failed to produce the
groundswell of protest that the die-hards predicted. And
Vietnam is now clearly a land of opportunities, which will
inevitably draw much more American investment and many more
visits by American tourists.
As a web of everyday political and economic links grows
between the United States and Vietnam, as more and more
Americans come to know Vietnam at peace, the old passions,
already nearly spent for most Americans, will seem
increasingly irrelevant. Normality is the enemy of grudges
and hatreds.
At any rate, the deed is done. Congressional threats to
withhold money for an American embassy in Hanoi are likely to
come to nothing. Mr. Clinton acted just as the question of
full diplomatic ties was beginning to be sucked into the
vortex of the 1996 campaign. He could not have waited much
longer, and by moving now, he may benefit from looking
resolute on a tough issue.
Reminiscing this morning with a reporter he has known since
the days of air raids over Hanoi and ground combat in the
Central Highlands, Senator McCain commented that he was
determined that his generation not leave a legacy of anger
and vindictiveness.
``I got over the war about 45 minutes after the plane
bringing me home took off from Hanoi,'' he said. ``But not
everyone feels that way. Some people hate me for backing
this, call me the Manchurian Candidate, say I'm a
collaborator, the most awful stuff. There will always be
people like that, but fewer and fewer. Not many people talk
about the dirty Japs anymore.''
____
Marine Corps League,
September 18, 1995.
Hon. Robert Dole,
U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
Dear Senator Dole: Why haven't you used your powerful
position as Senate Majority Leader to push the House of
Representatives language of the Missing Service Personnel Act
of 1995?
We support the House language of the Missing Service
Personnel Act of 1995.
Semper Fidelis,
Wayne R. Sill,
Nat'l Chairman, POW/MIA Committee.
Vietnam Veterans of America, Inc.,
Washington, DC, Sept. 14, 1995.
Hon. Bob Dornan,
House of Representatives, Washington, DC.
Dear Representative Dornan: Vietnam Veterans of America
(VVA) urges you to preserve the House-passed provisions
derived from the Missing Service Personnel Act (Section 563)
as the conference committee deliberates the Defense
Authorization Bill (HR 1530). The House-passed provisions are
preferable, as they provide enhanced protection for families
of service personnel listed as Missing-In-Action (MIA).
The Missing Service Personnel Act is a critical piece of
legislation for MIA families because it would spell out in
law a procedure for handling the very delicate question of
how and when a member of the Armed Forces considered missing-
in-action can be declared legally dead. VVA believes this
legislation will correct mistakes realized in past wars. Most
importantly, families would know what to expect and would be
spared years of turmoil and pain.
VVA greatly appreciates your strong support for this
legislation in the past, and urges you to maintain the House-
passed language in the Defense Authorization conference
report.
Sincerely,
James L. Brazee, Jr.,
President.
____
Korean/Cold War Family
Association of the Missing,
Coppell, TX, Sept. 18, 1995.
Representative Robert Dornan.
Dear Sir: The families of the POW/MIA's from the Korean War
(8,177) and the Cold War (139) sincerely request your
assistance in passing the SB 256 in its original language
which was very similar to that of the HR 945. It has come to
our attention that Senator McCain and possibly others on the
review committee are attempting to ``water down'' this bill.
It is the view of the Families that this bill has already
been ``watered down'' in excess.
We, the Families of the Missing, have been battling the
bureaucracy for over 40 years, just trying to get the truth
as to what happened to our loved ones. We have been shunned,
hung-up on, ignored, called crazy and generally demeaned for
requesting information to which we are entitled.
Most importantly, the Prisoners of War and the Missing in
Action are denied their civil rights under the old Missing
Service Personnel Law. This law was intended to financially
assist the Families of the Missing. We did not know that this
law would be used to ``write off'' the Missing. Even though
the HR 945 is not nearly strong enough, it does give the
Families some recourse when the government FAILS to do its
duty by these Missing Service Personnel.
There have been letters written by Generals and Department
of Defense personnel saying this new bill would put undue
burden on them to account for their troops. If this is their
attitude, God help the men and women they send into battle
because their leaders certainly will not.
We would like to hear your response to our request.
Most sincerely,
Pat Wilson Dunton,
President/Founding Director.
____
National Alliance of Families,
Bellevue, WA, Sept. 19, 1995.
Re U.S. House of Representatives' Version of the ``Missing
Service Personnel Act of 1995''
(Attention: Mr. Duke Short.)
Hon. Strom Thurmond,
Chairman, Armed Services Committee,
Washington, DC
Dear Senator Thurmond: The more than 10,000 members of the
National Alliance of Families categorically support the above
``House version'' of this legislation which will make great
strides in correcting the errors of the past and prevent a
repeat of those errors during future conflicts.
Specifically, we endorse the provisions which call for
board review at three year intervals, access to information
for ``immediate'' family members, judicial review and
retroactivity.
Many, including ranking military officers, are attempting
to water down this relevant legislation claiming ``reopening
and mandatory review of cases from the past . . . will only
cause great emotional and financial strain on the families
involved.'' NAF membership glaringly resents the
condescending and patronizing attitude of the Pentagon. Our
family members wish the right to choose for themselves; if
they will or will not avail themselves of those provisions
cited in the ``House version'' of the ``MSPA 1995''. For too
many years, the U.S. Defense Department has been allowed to
``act'' on behalf of the families, choosing what information
was or was not submitted to the families for review. Due to
research in the National Archives and the Library of
Congress, many of our family members are only now, after
twenty to forty years after the fact, able to view records
and documents relating to their loved ones' cases which were
not and have not been provided to them via the military
casualty offices.
The families are quite capable of acting and speaking in
their own behalf. We resent any attempt by those in the
military to portray the families as emotionally fragile, in
need of their protection. Our Family members do not need
protection. They need the truth.
[[Page H 9431]]
In the opinion of our membership, the ``House version'' of
the ``Missing Service Personnel Act of 1995'' is the single
most important POW/MIA Legislation to come before the U.S.
Senate in years. The POW/MIA Families are tired of being lied
to, chided, and patronized by an uncaring Executive and
Legislative Branch of the U.S. Government. It is time that a
truly meaningful piece of legislation is passed to protect
America's fighting men and women. The old unwritten attitude
of ``just don't get captured'' is not acceptable! Our service
personnel and their families deserve protection under the
law. That protection will come with the passage of this law
as is.
Sincerely,
Dolores Apodaca Alfond,
National Chairperson.
____
Veterans of the Vietnam War, Inc.,
Dallastown, PA, Sept. 19, 1995.
Congressman Steve Buyer,
Attention: Myrna Dugan
Dear Myrna Dugan: As National POW/MIA Program Director for
the Veterans of the Vietnam War, Inc., we need the
Congressman to back Congressman Gilman's language of the
House version of H.R. 945 so that we have the strongest
language possible to protect our American servicemen and
women. We strongly urge the Congressman to pass H.R. 945
``The Missing Service Personnel Act of 1995''. We need this
bill passed so that the families of our POW/MIA's won't ever
have to endure the suffering that the Vietnam families have
had to and continue to endure.
We as Veterans of the Vietnam War, Inc. want to guarantee
that our present and our future American servicemen and women
have the best chance of being returned home to their loved
ones. That's why we strongly urger Congressman Buyer to pass
this very important bill. Thank you for your help and time on
this urgent matter. I would greatly appreciate a response to
this letter on the Congressman's feelings on this matter.
Michael T. Breighner,
National POW/MIA Program Director.
____
Disabled American Veterans,
Washington, DC, September 20, 1995.
Hon. Strom Thurmond,
Chairman, Senate Committee on Armed Services, Russell Senate
Office Building, Washington, DC.
Dear Chairman Thurmond: As National Commander of the more
than one million members of the Disabled American Veterans
(DAV) and its Auxiliary, I am writing you to express our
concern regarding attempts to erode the effectiveness of the
provisions of the Missing Service Personnel Act, section 563
of H.R. 1530, the Fiscal Year 1996 Defense Authorization Act.
The DAV supports the House language in the Missing Service
Personnel Act because of the additional safeguards contained
in the House version. The key provisions include: legal
counsel for the missing person, access to information by
immediate family members of the missing person, the
availability of judicial review, and the retroactive
provision of this legislation. We believe that these are
important provisions; however, these provisions are missing
from the Senate version.
As this measure is being considered in conference, I would
urge you, in your leadership position, to encourage your
colleagues to support the inclusion of these key provisions
in the final version of the Defense Authorization Act.
Otherwise, it is DAV's position that this legislation would
be seriously flawed.
Thank you for your continued support.
Sincerely,
Thomas A. McMasters III,
National Commander.
____
The American Legion,
Washington, DC, September 11, 1995.
Hon. Daniel R. Coats,
Chairman, Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel,
Russell Building, Washington, DC.
Dear Senator Coats: The American Legion urges you in the
strongest possible terms to support Section 563, H.R. 1530,
the House version of the Missing Persons Act of 1995. In
particular, there are four features of the bill we are
interested in: board review at three year intervals; access
to information for immediate family members; judicial review;
and retroactivity. Senator Robert Dole has expressed his
support of the House version of the Missing Persons Act in a
written statement for the Congressional Record on September
5. We have worked very closely with Senator Dole on this
issue for some time.
The House version of the Missing Persons Act will provide
family members the ability to review records on which the
Pentagon has kept close hold but that family members have the
right to see.
The American Legion takes this issue very seriously and
regards its passage as extremely important. This measure
directly and substantially supports ongoing efforts to obtain
information about missing American servicemen. Section 563,
H.R. 1530 will provide an equitable basis for making status
determinations on missing personnel not only from past wars,
but also future conflicts.
Sincerely,
John F. Sommer, Jr.,
Executive Director.
____
September 12, 1995.
Senator Trent Lott,
U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
Dear Senator Lott: As the sister of Maj. Robert F. Coady,
USAF, lost in Laos whose family believed the Air Force when
they told us that we would be the first to know if there was
information on Maj. Coady. Our first knowledge of information
came 22 years after my brother's shoot down, when I requested
to see my brother's file. I was amazed to find declassified
documents that were 19 and 22 years old. I worked with
Senators Shelby, Heflin, Mack and Johnson who wrote letters
on my behalf. The Air Force told the Senators that I had all
the information. I was given an opportunity to view my
brother's file (after being told there was no more
information) only to find new information.
We all remember what the Cold War families were told and
the family from TN whose son was killed in the Gulf War by
friendly fire. Along with what has happened in my family's
case are disgraceful examples that explain the importance of
the House version (H.R. 945) of the Missing Service Personnel
Act.
Our country was founded on checks and balances. The House
version (H.R. 945) of the Missing Service Personnel Act is
our check and balance for family members that should not be
taken away from us.
As a United States Senator, please protect our right to
reopen and have a mandatory review as this is the only check
and balance we have left.
Sincerely,
Judith Coady Rainey.
____________________